This seems like a question. How do I create Google Chrome tabs and an interface in Java Swing? (I want to do the same), but more to the point: how to put components in front and behind tabs in JTabbedPane?
I myself came up with the idea of buttons, but I would prefer to use JTabbedPane, as this is really what it is, but is decorated with a button or icons on the sides.
I saw that the laf-widget project from Cyril does something like this (magnifying glass icon to the left of the tab) for several LaFs. Nevertheless, I must admit that I still do not understand how he does it - and it also seems to be a rather complicated process in which one “physically” changes the LaF in question (the byte code manipulates it), introducing laf-widget in the UI delegates - and I still don't know how the JTabbedPane or TabbedPaneUI is actually modulated to introduce this icon / button.
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